Flawrence
by The Evil Queen Magnus
Summary: Atticus Finch is trying to get away from being a lawyer a few years after the Tom Robinson case. He becomes a substitute teacher at Scout and Jem's high school.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Cora steps into Ms. Lawrence's classroom and slams her hands on the nearest desk. "Hey Ms. L, who's the hot sub across the hall?" she asks excitedly.

Ms. Lawrence raises her eyebrows at Cora's enthusiasm. "I'm not exactly sure, but to be honest, he is way too old for you," Ms. Lawrence lowers her voice and continues, "and way out of your league. Mine, too."

Jem walks in behind Cora, saying, "Ms. L, remember all those parent-teacher conferences my dad couldn't come to? Well, if you want to talk to him about my grades from three years ago, he's right across the hall. He's a long-term sub for Ms.B's class."

Cora widens her eyes in horror, "You mean to tell me that THAT GUY is your dad, Jem?"

Jem answers, "Yeah, he used to be a lawyer, but he stopped after this one case a few years ago."

At that moment, Mr. Finch walks into Ms. Lawrence's classroom. "Jem, shouldn't you be in class now?" Mr. Finch asks him.

"But Atticus, I want to talk to my favorite English teacher!" Jem whines.

Cora can quietly be heard saying "You call your Dad 'Atticus'?"

Mr. Finch turns to Ms. Lawrence. "You must be Ms. Lawrence," He says, shaking her hand. "Jem has told me so much about you. I believe my daughter, Jean Louise, is in your homeroom class this year. Just so you know, she prefers to go by 'Scout.' Don't worry, she is nothing like Jem. She should be in here, but I don't see her," he says, looking around the classroom."

As if on cue, Scout walks into the class, arms linked with Charles (Little Chuck Little), the nicest boy in school.

Charles gives everyone a dazzling smile. "Good morning, guys! How's it going?"

Jem grins back at Charles, bending down a little to high five him. "Hey man, it's going good. How about you? Got any 'first day of school jitters' yet?"

"Why I'm doin' just fine! I'm sure no first day of school could be worse than that first day with Miss Caroline!" Charles laughed.

Scout rolls her eyes at the memory.

She turns to Ms. Lawrence and greets her. "I'm sure I'll do well in this class, Miss. I've been reading since I was born."

Ms. Lawrence smiles in response to Scout, looking at the substitute, who was beaming with pride towards his daughter. Ms. Lawrence clears her throat, in an attempt to not get too flustered, and asked, "Can we speak, Mr. Finch?"

"Please, call me Atticus." He opens the door for Ms. Lawrence to step outside the classroom.

"Thank you, Mr. Fi- I mean, Atticus. Now, do you have your lesson plans?"

Atticus sighed and rubbed his temples. "No, I'm afraid the teacher didn't leave me any material. I'm sure they had to leave in a hurry and had their own problems, so it's understandable, but…" He chuckled. "It would've been helpful."

Ms. Lawrence's eyes widen. "Well, I could help you with that. Maybe I could bring you the work I give my kids every morning?"

Atticus clasps her hand in gratitude. "That'd be awful nice of you, thank you." He let go and glances into the classroom. "Jem, Scout, you two be good now. Especially you Scout, no fighting."

Scout gasps in offense. "Don't say that in front of my class, Atticus!" she pouted.

Atticus laughs and waves goodbye. "I'll see you around, Ms. Lawrence."

Ms. Lawrence replies, "You too, Atticus, and please, call me Megan."

Atticus walks out of the classroom, just as the warning bell rings.

Ms. Lawrence enters the room and questions, "Cora and Jem, who are your homeroom teachers?"

"Umm.." Cora starts, looking at her schedule. "I don't think I have a first period. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have a free period."

"Me neither," Jem says. "Hey, Ms. L, can I hang in your room in the mornings?"

Ms. Lawrence gives them a skeptical look. The three of them enter a staring contest of sorts, one in which Cora and Jem were losing.

Ms. Lawrence breaks eye contact, saying, "If you were to hang around my room in the mornings, you have to actually help. You can't just sit in here and be distracting."

"Of course," Cora responds.

"Yeah, we got you fam," Jem adds, dabbing, and subsequently knocking down a Slytherin poster off the wall. "Ow," he yelps, holding his left hand with his right. "I think it's broken!"

Scout yells from the back of the classroom, "It's not broken, you nitwit!"

"I'm not a nitwit," Jem retorts," you're a nitwit, you little-"

"Stop!" Ms. Lawrence shouts through her laughter. "Although I would love to be the one to explain to your father that Jem broke his arm dabbing, I would greatly appreciate it if you two could get along while in my classroom." She tapes her Slytherin poster back onto the wall, stating, "Also, Jem and Cora, the two of you are welcome to hang out with my class during first period, as long as you don't pick any fights with my actual students, especially your sister."

Cora snickers behind her hand. "Jem already broke that rule."Jem shoots a withering glare at Cora but lets it drop.

First period passes smoothly, aside from the occasional interruptions of giggling from Jem and Cora.

Kids file out of the classroom as the bell rings for third period. Later on, at the end of the day, a familiar face pops his head in the doorway and knocks on the door lightly. "Hello, Megan!" Atticus greets.

Ms. Lawrence smiles at the sight of her visitor. "What can I do for you, Atticus?"

"Just came to check how your day went. Did Jem and Scout fight at all? It's fine, you can tell me." Atticus grins with a wink.

Ms. Lawrence thinks back to Jem's continuous laughter and Scout's continuous eye-rolls. "Just siblings being siblings." She says.

"Ah, great! Not that I entirely believe you, no offense." Atticus leans against the wall and puts his hands into the pockets of his tailored pants. "It's just that I know my children, and although they're brilliant, they're also... troublesome." An expression of mixed fondness and exhaustion falls over his face. "They haven't changed a bit."

"Oh, I remember Jem's freshman year. There was a reason we needed to have all of those parent-teacher meetings." Ms. Lawrence grins at the memory of Jem's end-of-the-year prank.

Atticus smirks. "Well, I sincerely apologize for whatever terrible grades he earned himself in your class."

"Oh," Ms. Lawrence says, "the most fun I ever had grading was his research paper at the end of the year. It took me twice as long to grade as any other student because I was laughing so much."

"I don't recall Jem doing any research paper. What was it about?"

Ms. Lawrence thinks back to Jem's freshman year, "I believe Jem's research paper was on the history of puns. There was a pun on nearly every line, and somehow he had managed to rickroll me."

Atticus chuckled. "That's clever. What's a rickroll, though?"

Ms. Lawrence stars blankly at Atticus.

Cora burst through the door, shouting, "How do you not know what a rickroll is?!"

Jem runs into the classroom, singing at the top of his lungs "NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU NEVER GONNA SAY GOODBYE NEVER GONNA LET YOU CRY NEVER GONNA TELL A LIE AND HURT YOU!!!"

Ms. Lawrence turns to Atticus saying, "You, sir, have just been Rickrolled by your own son."

Atticus looks at Jem for a second, then shakes his head. "Nope." He says as he walks out.

"You should try out for the musical," Cora tells Jem. "We could really use another tenor. All of them graduated last year."

"Oh, really? What's the musical about this year?""It's about bootleggers and adultery."

"Well, that sounds…..interesting."

"Oh, my reaction exactly." Cora waves her hand about. "But really, it's super fun, and you'd definitely get in. I mean, you have the voice, and you're plenty of drama."

Jem straightens and puffs his chest out. He put his hands on his waist. "Well, if I'm such a shoo-in, then why not?"

Ms. Lawrence leans into Cora's ear. "Did he even hear the last thing you said?"

Cora whispers back, "Probably not, but it's better that way. Now his ego is boosted."

Scout stuck her head in the doorway. "Jem, let's go! Stop flirting with Cora! And what's with that hero pose?"

A blush spread over Jem's cheeks."I am NOT flirting! And I just decided to try out for the musical. It's the most manly of the theatrical productions."

Scout looks at her brother, unimpressed. "Whatever, let's go, we're gonna be late."

Atticus walks back in with a briefcase by his side. "Are you two ready?"

Scout points at Jem. "He's still in his fantasy world. He's saying he'll join the manliest musical."

Ms. Lawrence continues Atticus's thought. "Yeah, Jem. I'm sure you'll make it, you'll be great."

Jem goes back into his confident pose.

Scout tugs at Jem's arm. "Let's go! Stop looking so smug or I'm gonna scream!"

Jem swatted her off. "Fine, fine. Bye, Ms. L. Bye, Cora." he hugs Cora and waves goodbye as he exited with his father and sister.

Cora sat on a desk and started swinging her legs. She leans in and gives a wide grin. "So, how'd you like the first day, Ms. Lawrence?"

Ms. Lawrence rested her head on her hand, smiling, looking out the door and across the hall, "It's going to be a good year."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Cora and Jem burst through the door the following Monday.

Cora collapses into Jem's arms. "It's only the second week and I already want to drop out."

Jem drops her.

"Hey! What was that for?" Cora yells at Jem as she stands up.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you were falling towards me."

"How do you not realize that someone is falling towards you?!"

Ms. Lawrence only started paying attention to the last comment and asked, "What are you two fighting about?"

Cora replies immediately with, "Jem tried to kill me." She points an accusatory finger at him.

"No, I dropped her and to be fair, she never told me that she would be falling towards me," Jem added.

Cora rolls her eyes. "Whatever, Jem." she huffed. "As I was saying before I was so rudely dropped, it's only the second week of school and I already want to drop out." Cora falls towards Jem a second time, and gracefully lands in his arms, before standing back up.

Ms. Lawrence claps semi-sarcastically and shouts "Bravo, bravo. Much better than the last time," as she throws a plastic flower from the vase on her desk.

"What on earth are you guys doing?" Scout asks, walking in with Charles. "Jem, if this is another one of your stupid jokes, I'm gonna scream."

"First of all, my jokes are not stupid, and second, I don't have to tell you any of what's going on," Jem yells back.

Cora turns her direction to Scout. "I fell dramatically into Jem's arms and he caught me this time."

"Congrats." Scout deadpans.

Atticus jogs into the room, asking, "Why do I hear yelling from you, Jem?"

Ms. Lawrence quickly replies on Jem's behalf. "Oh, there was no yelling, Atticus."

Atticus narrows his eyes at Jem. "Did you bribe this nice teacher to say that, Jem?"

"Wha-? Do you actually think so lowly of me that you think I would bribe a teacher to say that I wasn't yelling?"

"Yes," Atticus responds, not unlike Scout had moments ago.

Ms. Lawrence stands up and goes to sit on a desk near Atticus. "No, he didn't bribe me. He and Cora were just rehearsing for musical auditions. There was definitely some drama, but no yelling."

"Why do you look annoyed, then?" Atticus asks Ms. Lawrence.

"Oh, my sock just fell off again. It happens when I wear these boots." She fixes her sock and shoe before turning her attention back to the handsome gentleman sitting next to her. She ignores his slightly confused expression.

"Mr. Finch?" Charles said. "You should see Jem and Cora's rehearsal for auditions. It's pretty good."

Cora squeals, "CHUCK! YOU'RE SO CUTE!" She pinches Charles' cheeks. Scout pulls Charles away from Cora as Jem pulls Cora next to himself.

"Oo! Cora, I just got an idea on how to rehearse!" Jem exclaims.

"What is it?" Cora asks.

Jem and Cora whisper to each other for a moment before Jem climbs onto a desk shouting, "Oh Romeo, Romeo, why must you be Romeo Montague? Could you have not been of any other name than Montague?"

Cora continues the scene, "My beautiful Juliet, call me whatever you like, such that you will love me for me and not hate me for my name. If you so wish, you could never call me Romeo again."

Jem yells dramatically, "We may not have known each other for long, but I would die for you, I would do anything for you my Romeo."

"JULIET," Ms. Lawrence yells, playing the part of Lady Capulet.

"I'm coming mother." Jem lowers his voice to talk to Romeo again, "You need to hide somewhere she can't see you."

"JULIET, If you don't come out, I'm coming in." Ms. Lawrence walks over to Jem, shouting at Cora, "Montague? How the heck did you get over the orchard walls? Are you a spider monkey?"

"YEET!" Cora shouts as she runs to the opposite side of the classroom and dabs, knocking the Slytherin poster off of the wall.

Atticus stands from his seat, fixes the poster, and swaggers over towards Ms. Lawrence. "What is all of this commotion, My Lady?"

"It appeared to be a spider monkey, but I'm not exactly sure," Ms. Lawrence responded, laughing lightly.

Atticus' face shows a confused expression when he asks "Are you sure that's the next line? I'm pretty sure William Shakespeare didn't know what spider monkeys were back in the 1600's."

"Well, Shakespeare actually wrote Romeo and Juliet in the late 1500's, not the 1600's...and that really doesn't help my case much."

"Actually," Atticus starts, "spider monkeys were first classified in the 1700's. Don't ask why I know that."

"Well, now I have to ask why you know that." Ms. Lawrence jokes.

"Well, I used to be a lawyer, and a few years ago, I had a case where a man was charged with burglary. He tried to convince the court that it was really a spider monkey, so I had to do loads of research on spider monkeys to prove that there was no way a spider monkey could have done the crime. It was probably one of the funniest cases I ever worked on." Ms. Lawrence was giving a poor attempt to stifle her laughter by the time Atticus had finished the story.

"I would love to hear more about your cases. They sound both intriguing and amusing." Ms. Lawrence smiles, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Maybe I can tell you about more interesting cases over dinner sometime. Are you free this Friday?"

Ms. Lawrence takes a step closer to him and says, "Are you asking me on a date, Atticus?"

"Yeah, I think I am," Atticus says grinning.

"Well, in that case, I'm definitely free on Friday."

Atticus snorts and says "Clever pun, Megan. Clever pun."

Ms. Lawrence giggles at Atticus and then walks back to her desk, grabbing a stack of sticky notes and a pen. She writes on the top note and says, "Here is my phone number. Just in case you might want to call me."

"Thank you," Atticus says, ignoring the same joke she made just a minute ago, taking the sticky note from Ms. Lawrence's outstretched hand. He pulls his phone out of his jacket pocket and types her number in, making sure that all 10 digits are correct before turning his attention back to Ms. Lawrence. "I should probably go. I think my class is starting to wonder where their teacher is." And, as if on cue, the bell rang to start the school day while Ms. Lawrence watches Atticus as he jogs across the hallway to his own classroom.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ms. Lawrence wakes up on Friday morning to her phone buzzing with a notification. She reaches for her glasses which reside on the nightstand beside her. Ms. Lawrence looks at her phone to see that the text was from Atticus. The text reads, "Megan, I am so sorry, I will not be able to make our date tonight, Scout is sick and I do not want to leave her alone. I hope to reschedule soon. ️"

Ms. Lawrence sighs before typing her reply, "No worries. I hope Scout feels better soon." She presses send with a bit of hesitation. She turns off her phone and sets it down, taking off her glasses and putting them back in their place on her nightstand. She lies back down hoping to get a few extra minutes of sleep but her mind is still thinking about the text.

Not one moment later, her morning alarm starts blaring "The Circle of Life" from "The Lion King." She covers her head with her pillow and falls back asleep.

A short while later, she rushes through the classroom door with her hair in a messy bun, looking askew, holding a bottle of water labeled "The tears of my students."

Cora points at the bottle and asks, "What does that taste like?"

She pauses in the middle of snacking on a peanut butter bagel and thinks before saying, "The only thing more potent than black magic-"

Jem cups his hands around his mouth and screams "TEENAGE HORMONES!"

Atticus appears in the doorway looking very confused. "Is that a reference to that Disney movie about that mermaid who got legs?"

Cora bursts into song and prances around the room singing all of the parts of the song.

"UNDER THE SEA! UNDER THE SEA! WHEN THE SARDI- WHEN THE SARDINES BEGIN, IT'S MUSIC TO ME!"

Jem watches as Cora mock-swims around the classroom. His gaze is then drawn to Charles jumping on his desk.

Charles holds his pencil up to his mouth, points at Cora, and sings, "What do they got?"

Cora's face lights up, and she scrambles onto her own desk, on her way screaming, "A LOT OF SAND!"

Cora and Charles then harmonize as they sing, "WE GOT A HOT CRUSTACEAN BAND!"

Once Cora and Charles finish the song and are doing jazz hands, Atticus rushes in.

"What's going on here?" he asks. "It sounded like a cat was dying!"

Charles drops his jazz hands solemnly, climbing off of his desk, "Sorry-"

"He and Cora were singing. Well, he was singing, Cora was doing her best impression of nails on a chalkboard," Jem interrupts.

"Hey!" Cora yells, stumbling off her own desk. She crosses her arms and huffs, "I'm not that bad."

Jem scoffs before uttering, "Well it obviously wasn't Charles that sounded like the dying cat Atticus heard. He sounded great. It must have been you, Cora." Jem glances in Cora's direction and she finally realizes what he was trying to do.

"I'll admit, Charles is probably the one person in the room that could actually outshine me on a stage," Cora admits. "And he could definitely outshine me. He's already good and he hasn't even taken music lessons."

Atticus nods his head skeptically, "Sure… we'll go with that." Atticus turns and strolls over to Ms. Lawrence, "Anyway, I actually came to talk to you. I'm sorry that we can't go on our date-"

"No, no!" Ms. Lawrence interrupted, "It's fine! I totally understand. Kids can be a handful sometimes. I would know… as per my job description." Jem and Cora frown at her. "Plus, we can always go out another time."

"Speaking of, would you like to have lunch with me today? I know it isn't an ideal first date, but at least it's something."

"YES!! I mean, sure, sure, whatever, that's cool."

He perks up a little, standing up straight. Atticus looked down quickly and starts to smooth out his already perfectly ironed suit and brushes away at invisible dust. "Well, in that case!" he winks, "I'll see you this afternoon!"

"WELL, TECHNICALLY," Cora pipes up, ignoring his pun, "B lunch is in the morning, not the afternoon."

Atticus walks out, ignoring Cora's comment.

Cora turns to Jem, "Hey, where's your sister? Isn't she the one that's actually in this class?"

"Oh, she's home sick and our aunt is watching her. I don't mean to get her in trouble or anything, but I think she's faking it." He rolls his eyes.

"I think you most definitely do mean to get her in trouble."

Ms. Lawrence overhears their conversation. "Jem, is she really faking it?"

"Yeah, she didn't look sick to me. I think she was trying to get out of taking her math quiz today."

Cora interjects, "Well, why didn't you tell your dad that she was faking it?"

"I don't wanna get a black eye, thanks."

Cora gives him a puzzled look. "You're like… double her size."

Ms. Lawrence interjects, "All people have the same amount of anger. In short people, it's just more condensed. I would definitely not want to to be on the receiving end of a punch from someone shorter than I am."

Cora glares at her, trying and failing to look menacing, "Well then, you should make sure not to get on my bad side"

Jem nearly falls out of his chair in laughter as the bell rings, signalling the start of class.


End file.
